Page 108 of Secrets That Bind Us
“Shit. Okay. Yeah. I can do that. When do we leave?”
“Our first visit with the execs should be sometime after the New Year. With the way my mind is working, we can go house hunting then, decide by spring break. And the kids can finish out the school year here. We can be packed up and gone by the start of summer.”
He bites back his smile. “House hunting. Fuck, that sounds so good. Wait, you don’t want to live in the house you had in New Haven?”
I shake my head. “No, baby. I want everything to be the way it should have always been with us. I want a new house where we can make our own memories. Build the lifewewant. That hasn’t changed for me either.”
“Nobody builds you bookshelves but me, you understand?”
I quirk a brow at this request but then nod. “Okay.”
He leans over and kisses me. “When do we tell the kids? I’m letting you lead here.”
I look at him. “Let’s tell them now. I don’t want to drop things on them.”
“SAVVY! NOAH!” he yells, and we hear little feet running towards us from the living room.
“What?” Savvy asks from the doorway, but Noah comes and jumps into the bed to sit on Dean’s lap. I tell them everything, not leaving anything out, because they deserve to know all of it. Seems I’m tired of secrets, too.Savvy’s eyes go wide and she creeps into my bedroom. “Sooo we’re leaving?”
Dean and I nod.
“When?”
“After the wedding, around the first of the year. We’ll go to New York to meet the executives.”
I see the shadow of excitement crawl along her face. “So we’re leaving this town behind? The house?”
“I mean, I’ll still have to come down every now and then to check on The Ink Plot, but yeah. We’ll be living back up North.”
“Will I go back to school at Hawthorne?”
“Is that what you want?”
Both of our kids say yes.
I look over at Dean. “Connecticut sound okay to you?”
We hear another little pitter-patter coming through the threshold of our bedroom door and look to see Bear sit on his hind legs beside Savvy. She pets his head, and gently rubs behind his ear, but looks at Dean as though she’s silently pleading for him to say yes.
He smiles at our daughter. “You kidding me? A new house with new adventures with my wife and kids?” Bear barks. “And Bear?”
“And Clifford!”
“And Clifford? It sounds perfect. Almost too good to be true.”
I shrug at Sav. “I guess that settles it. I’ll start looking at listings in the morning.”
We put the kids to bed; Dean putsmeto bed. Afterwards, as he lays there breathing heavily beside me, I hear little scratches on the wall beside my head.
I turn on my side and drag Dean’s big arm over my body. He tucks me in closer.
Scratchscratchscratch.
And go the fuck to sleep.
Chapter Forty-One
Dean
